Evidence that Mr. Roosevelt is doing what we have described
is provided by the fact that the old-fashioned " bosses " of the Republican Party at New York have refused to accept the pro- posal that he should be temporary Chairman of the Republican State Convention. They have put forward instead Mr. Sherman, the Vice-President. As the Times correspondent says in Wednesday's paper, the Vice-President is usually unsympathetic towards the President. Therefore we take the action of the " bosses " to be a reactionary attempt to with- stand a rearrangement of the machine upon which Mr. Taft and Mr. Roosevelt are agreed. The report that Mr. Roosevelt deliberately procured his own rejection in order to have an excuse for a split with Mr. Taft seems to be a " cock- and-bull " story. The State Convention will not open till September 27th, and the question of the chairman- ship will not be decided till them In the meantime Mr. Roosevelt will make a tour in the West, and deliver some speechei. . We shall be much surprised if in the end Mr. Taft does not find that the support of Mr. Roosevelt, at whatever sacrifice of other political friends, is just what is needed for the repair of the Republican machine.
